Confessions of a Cola Addict: health

A SIMPLE WAY TO DRINK MORE WATER

23:19
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The other day I was going through the archives of the blog and I realised how my tone has changed over time. This year has been a lot of ups and downs for me and I feel present time is the closest to ZEN like I have been this year (if you knew me in person, you'd probably go "say waaaaaaat" but well...)

I also noticed that I let out some pretty intense emotions over here. On some level, I think I started this place to talk my mind to someone yet no one in particular and I am so thankful that I did this. Today, I am sending some gratitude to the Universe for being kind and with that here is what life has been like, lately...

Feeling excited to welcome new changes and turning the year around. There are 6 more months to go and I hope the positivity keeps on flowing

Needing to allow myself be and organically embrace new situations. I am trying to be kinder to myself and letting my mind and body adjust to new situations without hounding

Trying to be more regular with my workouts. Last week was so naughty...too much cake and not even a thought of working out. So yeah, here's looking forward to getting back in action this week

Listening to Jessie Ware, my new girl crush. That voice belting those volatile lyrics is perfect for rainy afternoons

Struggling to watch Mad Men more out of peer pressure than anything else. Being in advertising, I cannot even count the number of times a client has gone, "Oh I bet you love Mad Men huh!" Em, sure!

Reading ( rather trying to) ALEXANDER- Child of Dreams by Valerio Massimo Manfredi. The genre of historical fiction is new to me. finding it intriguing though very fiction like.

Looking forward to one of closest friends coming to town mid-July. Lots of planning underway for a super girly time.

The struggle of eating healthy breakfast continues. But after lots of belly aching I have decided that eating something is better than eating nothing, right? My mornings are now made of PBJs and a cup of milk. SO 3rd standard but SO good!

I was gifted an OTG last week & I am dying to inaugurate it soon. Any Level-1 baking recipes, anyone?

Wanting to do more DIY crafts. The other night I took the packaging of my new reed-diffuser set and turned it into a scrunchie holder. Next to nothing investment but felt so so good!

Craving some alone time with self when self is motivated enough to NOT just lie in whale-mode. Much like this morning when I was awake at 10am, read the paper, read a few pages of the book and then sat down to write this post. Awesome!

Enjoying playing squash with the boys on Saturday morning. Whattaway to start the weekend!

PC: Instagram

Planning more and more home decor. My heart is set on installing a swing door between the kitchen and living room. Just look how pretty! I also plan on expanding my window-garden and starting on the herb garden soon

Loving coming to this place every few days and having a conversation. I do see a lot of people dropping in and I just wanted to say, if you are reading this, I'd love to say hello and get to know you little better

Thanking the universe for all the love I received on my birthday. I couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by the awesomeness that is my life & how the last ten years have been anything but amazing in the beautiful city

Last week, as an act of utmost impulse I listed my apartment on AirBnb. This is also a good time to mention AirBnB is like a travel-porn site for lusty travellers. I spend my nights scrolling through listings and lusting! Oooohhya! :P Anyway, I'm excited to be a host and looking forward to how it turns out.

So how is life for you? Do you have any mid-year action plan? Is the weather nice?

12:38
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FITNESS | MAY AGENDA

any

Does anyone else believe in jinx?
Well I know I do. And you'll know why in about 3 sentences.

Impressed by my discipline and dedication, I had gloated just a tiny bit in February and then to my many friends in March about my new trainer and the great workout and look what happened...

April was MAYHEM times 10!

No workout
No regular meals
(well I had no home for about 10 days so that's that)
OTT fast food consumption
and the cherry on top, insane stress that must have released buckets of cortisol in my system making it go somewhat like this

Yeeeeeee me.

But now that the shit storm has subsided and I am slowly coming to terms with my new abode (I want to gush about this later), it's time to take control.

Step 1 of damage control was visiting my nutritionist and getting a reality check. And as expected, my weight and fat levels are at my all time worst. Honestly man, I have not been this gutted in a long long time. Seeing the unbelievable 70 on the scale was numbing, then terrifying. After lots of AA type confessions later the POA was drafted...

The mission to go slow and correct the larger issues.

Step 1 > fix a wake up time. The eating pattern goes into monkey mode if the wake up time keeps varying. Also, this is something I also struggle with so definitely to be fixed.

Step 2 > get back on the eating right wagon. I need to get back to starting my day with the metabolism boosting cinnamon-honey paste downed with hot water and then a healthy breakfast which should preferably oats which keeps me filled longer and is also know to help fight cholesterol

Step 3 > which is the tricky one, exercise. And I have no idea how to approach the workout situation. I could start with my trainer but I am kinda broke-ish. Alternately, I could start by using the office gym which is pretty well equipped and well, free! except that I have to reach work by 8 which is tad over ambitious. Plan C, start walking everyday, which honestly, is the least likely to happen because it is the single most boring workout EVER!

My lovely nutritionist gave me a killer idea...switch on youtube and follow a zumba video! At home, free, not time bound and fun! Hmm...I think I am tipping towards this the most, To complement, I am very inclined to put my very robust Pinterest board to good use and try a few plans. Ambitious, you say? I so agree but hey, I am trying!

I am willing to cut myself a little slack today and tomorrow and as the weekend begins, I want to get this plan into action.

Is there anyone listening to my woes? Do you have a pearl of wisdom to help me through? Kinda sinking here...

05:44
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FITNESS | BANISH THE EXCUSES

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(IMAGE SOURCE: FACEBOOK)

We have all done it.

"Its raining" "It's early" "I am tired" "I am swamped". I know you are nodding.

This whole 'I-want-to -make-a-change-but-won't-stop-making-excuses-yet-will-continue-complaining' drama did so much damage to my mental health that it just had to stop! So my no-whining policy for 2015 made way for a no-excuses policy.

Address and solve is my solution.

Here are a few of my classic ones and how I changed them...

1) TIME

(Image from someecards.com)

Not a morning person? Very few are. But, come on, there are twenty-four hours in a day! 24. It isn't impossible to do a little investigation to test what time motivates you the most to get off your ass. The time of exercise should not only depend on convenience but also factor that you are aware of why you want to start exercising and feel motivated rather than drudge it along like some chore. After years of not doing zilch and then making excuses every morning, I finally got off my ass a bit and started squeezing in a workout at some point in the day. Thanks to the erratic persistence, I discovered that working out around 3/4PM is actually the best time for me. Morning gets me groggy and evenings make me too hyper to get sleep. I am lucky to have an office gym which is accessible at any time but is usually packed in the mornings and evenings. That's how I started working out at 3.30 and it worked out great for me. I don't feel lethargic, feel sharper after I am done, it gives me a good break from the work stress so far and I get brilliant sleep!

2) PAIN

(Image from www.fuelrunning.com)

This can not to be ignored at all. Knee and lower back pain has been a huge issue for years. I happened to mention it to my yoga teacher once and she asked me to modify some of the asanas that exert the back and taught me a new asana that really helped. If you suffer from lower back pain the Cat/Cow pose is really helpful:

(Image from www.scientifit.com)

For any knee related issues, first check your footwear and then please consult an Orthopedist pronto! My diagnosis was pretty simple: over-exertion. Meaning treadmill, yoga, jazz classes all done simultaneously and then stopped altogether took its obvious toll. Plus, in my case, lack of nutrition meant no repair to the damages incurred.

So, (b) Avoid over exertion as mentioned here. My doctor gave me the following exercises that help strengthen weak knees:

ADD PICTURE

A colleague suggested wearing a knee cap through office hours and that helps too. If the pain gets too much I use Voveran Emulgel. Its really really good. It doesnt have the horrible stench of OTC pain balms and acts really really fast.

(Image from: www.rx4freaks.com/)

I have come to realise that there maybe some merit in investigating these excuses. They maybe our mind's way of announcing discomforts we fail to notice. So be kind to yourself. Identify and solve the problem. Make one change at a time. And it will all get better. Eventually.

Love

10:28
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SELF | LOVE A LITLE / LIVE A LITTLE

assistance

12:38
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FITNESS | HABIT OF THE MONTH

cardio

23:24
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THE BEGINNING | New Year / Old cliche

exercise

As cliches go, "New year, new you" or "New year, fresh start" pretty much tops the list of corny cliches also known as Resolutions.

Over the years, even I have succumbed to the ridiculousness of this ambition just like every other lazy joe. And resigned. But this year, somethings gotta change. And if I am going to make a change, the start of the year is as good as any time of the year right? I figure its better for my fragile determination to seek comfort from the huge long year ahead of me so that a little slip is not end of the year.

(See how I am already making excuses for my impending laziness? Typical!)

Oh, by the way, Hi! Nice to meet you. How has your year been so far? How are the resolutions coming along? Oh don't worry, you have a full eleven months ahead of you. And me. We'll get there. Hopefully together...?

I am an endorser of the ultimate city-life cliche- left home in pursuit of higher education, hostels, paying guests, instant noodle romance, finally making it with a thrilling but demanding desk job, succumb to pressure by denouncing food, embrace alcohol and late nights with wide open arms, suffer partial dementia at the hear of exercise...the whole nine yards.

Basically five years worth of dedicated ill treatment leading to an obese, unhealthy, burnt out 27 years old, 6 months away from her scary age of 28. Do you have a scary age? The one you lay worrying about? 28 is mine. So this blog and the ensuing 'resolutions' are my attempts to grab 28 by the b@##s and screaming triumph.

Lets get into a bit of logistics now, shall we? I am 27. Female. About 20 kilos over-weight though I am dismissed always as a vain, delusional when I mention this. It took me two years to register I was over-weight and about four to realise I was grossly unhealthy. In today's world anyone quipping about health, weight etc is dismissed as being trendy but what I recently realised that this condition is reaching epidemic status where people don't have an Rx that understand the germ of the problem. In an attempt to make amends to my body, last month I was looking for a nutritionist and all that's out there are weight-loss solutions without understanding the cause of weight gain in the first place. And they do this ignorant problem solving for obnoxious amounts of money. Most of them figure you are fat because you are stuffing yourself. I for one am fat because I wasn't stuffing myself! This was by far the weirdest things I had heard. Over the past few years I never understood why exactly was I overweight considering I ate very little, didn't really drown in alcohol and yes, I don't really workout regularly, have a serious cola addiction and a victim of the mother of all vices, a sweet tooth. But hey! I am not having a cupcake for breakfast, so wth!

I shall answer the details of wth in time to come but for now, lets go back to resolutions. With my fragile determination I have made and not stuck to most of my resolutions but this year something amazing happened. Today, as I was whiling my time enjoying Republic Day holiday, I realised that there are a couple of things I have been focussing on lately and that realisation led to this blog which is actually my way of making myself remeber them and stick to them. In no particular order here is what I have been upto subconsciously:

1) Decluttering. I am a hoarder and this lovely trait has been genetically passed to me by my lovely father who in his life has never even thrown away a piece of parchment fearing future utility. Two months ago I cleared my closet of all my clothes that I hoped to fit into. It was one of the most liberating things I had ever done. First, it was my first act of charity. I owned a closet full of clothes that were in terrific condition but unworn in years. When I left that giant bag made of a tied up bedsheet I felt like I lightened an emotional load. The cleared out wardrobe made me embrase my size, which in turn I realised I am not happy with which then snowballed into some serious soul searching on what changes did I really want in my life.

This year I have already attacked my sock drawer and getting rid of my 28B sports bras was AWESOME! I feel this exercise of decluttering is giving me focus and helping me come to terms with reality. I don't have a clear explanation and you may be scoffing at the philosophy, but I am sticking to it.

Next on my list is my dressing table and the 4000 products on it. Last couple of years I have also had a case of bad skin which all leads to the nutrition issue but I sought help from a dermat recently and slowly and surely I want to find a good skin routine which involves few but effective products.

2) Focussing on nutrition and keeping one eye sugar. Okay this one is not subconcious. Last month, I had an epic meltdown one morning thoroughly upset by recurring flu staying for days, bad tummy despite an honest attempt to eat better. After said meltdown subsided, I did some furious research and agreed to meet a nutritionist to figure out wth was up! This, my friends, has changed my life. Not only did I get a total perspective makeover on what is actually eating healthy but I also understood the reason to my overweight. Under-nourishment. I guffawed like a baboon when she pointed out this small factor. I mean, hello! I am 20 kilos overweight! You just declared me obese! What are you talking about? But God bless her patient soul. She smiled patiently and over the next hour she went on to explain the details of her hypothesis and the counter POA. Now I am consciously trying to make better food choices. More on this very soon.

3) Seeking a morning routine. Oh dear God! This takes me back right to college when every morning I tried to bunk and my lovely roommate tried to talk me out of bed. I am not a morning person. I am the person who will wake up at 9 and dash out at 9.30 to reach work just by 10.30 to avoid the late mark. Thanks to my nutritionist I have had to wake up early everyday and pack my food for the day which made me realise how a good morning set the tone for a great day! I am currently in the process of fixing this by throwing money at this problem but I am trying to see it as an investment. More on this soon.

(Do I sound mysterious enough to lure you back again?)

4) Fantasizing about a foreign holiday. This has nothing to do with my issues but now that we've talked so much I feel like sharing this exciting goal as well. Sometime this year, I plan to take my ass overseas and indulge in what I know would be a life changing experience. Will you shoot me, if I say more later?

I think this is enough for today. I am not sure where I am heading with this but I know I am very excited after having written this. I am very excited to tell you how it all shapes up which in turn will probably motivate me to follow through and not give up. OH! 'Finish what you start' is one of the only formal resolution I wrote down one of the late December days. So maybe this is number 5.

Tell me about you? What are your expectations from the year ahead? Have you made a great headstart. Talk to me.

Until soon, LOVE- S

07:57
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A SIMPLE WAY TO DRINK MORE WATER

HEALTH | AUGUST AGENDA

LIFE | LATELY...

FITNESS | MAY AGENDA

FITNESS | BANISH THE EXCUSES

SELF | LOVE A LITLE / LIVE A LITTLE

FITNESS | HABIT OF THE MONTH

THE BEGINNING | New Year / Old cliche

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